Common beverage can up your heart attack risk by 35%

I’m practically jumping for joy at what I’m about to share with you. It appears medical “experts” are finally calling for an aggressive effort to reduce sugar consumption — particularly in the form of sugar-sweetened beverages.

Hip hip hooray!!! Honestly, though, what took them so long?

It’s pretty much common knowledge that sugary drinks are the single greatest source of health problems in America today. All you have to do is look at what overweight people are drinking at shopping malls, airports, and theme parks. What did these “experts” think the culprit was?

Some alien force?

The truth is, over half of the population drinks one or more sugary drinks every day, which adds between 200 and 500 calories to their expanding waistlines, contributing to the rise of obesity and diabetes.

So when you mindlessly chug these empty calories, you wind up eating more — and gaining weight…

And that’s just for starters.

Researchers from Harvard School of Public Health reviewed data from recent studies and found that drinking just one or two sodas a day is directly linked to a:

26% greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes

35% greater risk of heart attack or fatal heart disease

16% increased risk of stroke.

Now, if these statistics were for any other substance on the planet, there would be a call to ban the sale of this product. Yet, for sugar, we turn a blind eye while people die.

Of course, all sugars make you gain weight. But there are two that are particularly problematic, and they typically travel together in sugary drinks.

The first is high fructose corn syrup. Fructose is gets stockpiled away in your liver as “stowaway sugar” and leads to elevated triglycerides, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and type 2 diabetes. (For more details on stowaway sugar, refer back to the April 2014 issue of my Logical Health Alternatives newsletter. Subscribers can download and view this issue from the Archives for free by logging in to my website, www.drpescatore.com with your username and password. And if you’re not already a subscriber, now is the perfect time to get started.)

The second is sucrose. Too much sucrose leads to insulin resistance, which is a key risk factor for diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Another long-term study, known as the “Framingham Heart Study (FHS)” went a step further but ultimately confirmed what the Harvard researchers found. And that is sugar-sweetened drinks are linked to an increase in visceral fat. This type of “deep fat” is particularly dangerous because it tends to wrap around organs like the liver, pancreas, and intestines, setting you up for any number of chronic diseases.

At the beginning of the FHS study, the participants had a CT scan to measure quantity and volume of their abdominal fat tissue. Then, six years later, they had another CT scan and answered questions about their diets. And researchers found that the people who had the highest increases in visceral fat were also the same ones who reported drinking the most sugar-sweetened beverages.

Specifically, those who drank at least 1 sugar-sweetened beverage a day gained 27 percent more visceral fat than those who didn’t consume sugary drinks.

Of course, most people who drink soda, juice, and other sugar-sweetened beverages don’t stop at just one per day. So you can imagine how much extra fat they are adding to their internal organs, and how much faster they’ll wind up with a whole host of health issues.

The researchers said: “Our findings underscore the urgent need for public health strategies that reduce the consumption of these drinks.”

If this isn’t enough to warrant legislation against sugar-sweetened beverages, I don’t know what is.

Granted, eliminating sugary beverages is not the definitive cure for the diabesity epidemic we find ourselves in. But it is a major step in the right direction.

Whatever happened to drinking water, herbal teas, and seltzer? Not only will they quench your thirst more effectively than sugary liquids, they also won’t wreak havoc on your metabolism.

Of course, while eliminating sugary beverages is indeed a step in the right direction when it comes to reversing the skyrocketing epidemic of metabolic syndrome sweeping through this country, there’s much more you can do. In fact, I’ve put together a complete Metabolic Repair Protocol that can help you prevent — and even reverse — metabolic syndrome and all of its complications (including Type 2 diabetes and heart disease).

This comprehensive, step-by-step plan is the same approach I use with my patients. But now, finally, I’ve found a way to make it available to you too — without having to travel to my office here in Manhattan. In fact, you don’t even have to leave the comfort of your own home!

Metabolic syndrome is truly the most devastating disease of our time. I see the terrible reality of it every day. So I urge you to take action now, and start my Metabolic Repair Protocol. It’s never too late (or too early) to turn the tide against this deadly enemy.